“We're well past the end of the century when time, for the first time, curved, bent, slipped, flash forwarded, and flashed back yet still kept rolling along. We know it all now, with our thoughts traveling at the speed of a tweet, our 140 characters in search of a paragraph. We're post-history. We're post-mystery.” KnowsFirstsWellsStillsEndsCharacterPastMysteryCenturyFirst TimeSpeedPostsFlashRollingOur ThoughtsBentTweetParagraphKnow It All140 CharacterRolling Along Author:Ali Smith
“Music stays in the air. / It travels at the speed of breath / at the sound of light. / It is never not heard. / It can wait centuries if it has to.” IfsLightWaitingSoundMusicHeardAirCenturyBreathsSpeed Book:Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday Source: Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday
“India lives in several centuries at the same time. Every night outside my house I pass a road gang of emaciated laborers digging a trench to lay fiber optic cables to speed up digital revolution. They work by the light of a few candles.” LightNightHouseCenturyRevolutionIndiaLaysSpeedDigitalCandleEvery NightGangCablesDiggingFiberTrenchesLaborersDigital Revolution Author:Arundhati Roy
“In the name of economy a thousand wasteful devices would be invented; and in the name of efficiency new forms of mechanical time-wasting would be devised: both processes gained speed through the nineteenth century and have come close to the limit of extravagant futility in our own time. But labor-saving devices could only achieve their end-that of freeing mankind for higher functions-if the standard of living remained stable. The dogma of increasing wants nullified every real economy and set the community in a collective squirrel-cage.” IfsWantRealEndsWould BeFormNamesProcessCommunityEconomyAchieveMankindCenturyHigherThousandLimitsStandardsLaborFunctionSpeedSavingCollectivesDevicesWasting TimeStableDogmaEfficiencyConsumerismCagesNineteenth CenturyFutilityOverconsumptionExtravagantStandards Of LivingSquirrels Author:Lewis Mumford
“You have the 20th century wrapping up and everything is moving at this breakneck speed? And then, painting is still walking. It's just a very human activity that takes time.” HumansStillsMovingCenturyPaintingWalkingActivitySpeedTake Time20th CenturyHuman ActivityWrappingWrapping Up Author:Joe Bradley
“Build high-speed, electrified trains over the most-traveled corridors. It'sreally hard to power carbon-free airplanes, but electrified trains are much easier. We'll be a half century behind the Japanese, but better late than never.” HardBehindsHalfCenturyEasierLateTrainSpeedAirplaneTraveledCarbonCorridorsHigh SpeedBetter Late Than Never Author:Denis Hayes
“The whole idea of timing tests is a century old, from a scientist who thought speed and ability were tightly correlated, which they are not.” IdeasWholeAbilityCenturyTestsScientistSpeedTiming Author:L. Todd Rose